When the Monsters Go Away
by mrwizard70
Summary: Men and women make the worst monsters, especially when they are the only monsters. Written before volume 3, no Maidens. There will be main character death, there will be darkness.
1. Prologue

Ozpin was working late, repairing the barriers surrounding Beacon as he reflected on the intricate cogs of coincidence and irony that wound his fate in the world. Although he appeared to be deep asleep, he was replenishing the aura well that sustained the school's formidable defenses. His relaxation was interrupted by a rush of air emanating from the center of his office. Eyes still shut, he listened as six pairs of combat boots landed with a quiet clatter in the middle of his office. Ozpin felt, rather than heard, the intruders tense for a long moment. A graceful and feminine voice, decidedly upper-class, broke the silence.

"Caught you with your pants down, didn't we Oz?"

He opened his eyes and leaped forward over the desk, his cane transforming into a gilded sword faster than the eye could follow. A Specialist stared at her midriff in shock, cut in half before she could blink. Another tried to block as he drove his sword crosswise through her chest. Ozpin flicked his weapon to the side, parrying the downward slash of a powerfully built Atlesian Hunter-Captain, then speared the larger man's throat with an almost careless thrust. Turning to his real adversary, he raised an amused eyebrow at her expression.

"When was the last time I took off my pants?"

She ripped her gaze away from her slain comrades, face pale. "I know what you are, you _bastard_!"

"My dear...did you not expect casualties? It's unfortunate Evander felt the need to lie to you..." He slowly extracted his dripping sword from the Hunter-Captain's body with a low chuckle.

Her face was a rictus of rage. "You are _not_ getting away this time!"

"Ah - you see, the last time your master attempted something like this, I believe that was my line." He calmly turned to face her. "I have an odd feeling that you may have overestimated your own power by an exponential amount."

She drew a black pistol engraved with countless glyphs, all glowing with the searing, distinctive whitish-blue of her semblance. Winter leveled the gun at Ozpin's eyes.

" _My_ power is not in question here, old man."

* * *

 **A/N** Welcome to my new story! This one has been in the works for a _very_ long time, so please excuse any issues with Volume 3 it might have. Most of them should be working now, but no maidens ever, as this fic revolves around my concept of why people have the power they do.

Wow, I can't believe that I'm actually publishing this. However, I need to say a great deal of thanks to my helpful team of betas, and my extremely awesome editor /u/thebluehedgehog, for putting up with the ridiculousness that comes into my brain and tries to get written down every month or so. While I can't link his fanfiction page here because FF is odd like that, please do check him out (he's much better at this sort of thing then me). My betas are as follows.

Clamzilla, who might as well be a secondary editor with the amount of help he gave me.

Therisenthunderbird, who did a great deal of grammatical editing (the boring stuff)

Challos, who helped me breifly but gave me great advice.

A huge thank you to all of you, and I hope you enjoyed my introduction to the world of WtMGA! Next chapter on Friday!


	2. Time to Say Goodbye

Weiss was watching a battle. It was an odd dream, very clear and concise, but with only a few muted colors. The first thing she saw was the golden figure of a woman, battling against the dark silhouette of a man, as dark as night itself. The combat was furious, moving far faster than even she, a world class fencer, could follow. As Weiss' mind raced to catch up to her eyes, everything slowed. The woman made a desperate gambit, charging straight at the shadow while disregarding her own safety as she ran the him through with her sword. In a detached way, Weiss realized the courage necessary for the move. Then they both went down, her legs cut off by a backhanded stroke he never finished. The man's blood was gold, and the woman's black. As they fell to the ground, they intertwined, the colors mixing where the blood pooled. Then ground started to shake. The dream vanished, and she was back in the dorm at Beacon. Weiss groaned.

"Ruby it's not-"

A gloved hand covered her mouth. "Weiss! Weiss wake up. Weiss - you need to get up now."

Weiss hadn't heard that voice since last year. "Winter?!" She gasped through the offending hand.

Weiss could tell from Winter's expression that she was not happy to be in the dorm. "Shhh! Yes, it's me. You need to come with me," she repeated. "Now."

Weiss stared at Winter's face, eyes wide. "What? Why?"

Winter looked around, searching for a threat in her sister's dorm room, despite the fact that she was obviously the intruder. "There isn't time to explain. You can't be a huntress anymore. Nobody can. You have to come home; it's too dangerous to stay in Vale."

Weiss tore her sister's hand from her mouth. "And here I was, thinking you cared about me! This is just another one of father's plots to get me home! Get out of my room!" She shouted, attempting to push her sister away.

Ruby mumbled something about cookies and rolled over.

Winter, temporarily frozen, glared at her sister. "Weiss, you idiot. Atlas is on the move. Father and I just want to protect you. Ironwood will be here in a few hours, and then not even Father can ensure your safety." She paused, her face conflicted. "Please Weiss, we have to go."

Weiss narrowed her eyes, knocking away the hand Winter offered. "You think that I would just leave?!" Weiss's voice rose to a yell. "I'm not a coward!"

Weiss's words finally yanked the rest of the team out of their sleep. As team RWBY groggily flopped out of their beds in various stages of combat readiness, Winter shot one final glance at Weiss, leaped to the window and dropped two stories to the ground below.

Blake leaped out of bed and nearly caught Winter's heel with Gambol Shroud. She immediately raced to the window, but turned to Weiss instead of pursuing her sister. "Weiss! What's going on?!"

"Take that! . . . huh?" As Ruby slipped out of dreamland, she noticed the open window and resulting confusion.

"Who the hell was that and what were they doing in our dorm?" asked Yang, groaning as she drowsily came out of a crouch.

Weiss was looking out the window, watching the silhouette of her sister flee across the grounds. "That . . . was my elder sister Winter. She wanted me to go home to Atlas."

Yang rubbed her eyes. "Why the hell did she come at..." She glanced at the clock. "...three in the morning?"

Weiss's eyebrows drew together as she spoke, her voice was halting and slow. "All she said was that Atlas is on the move. She wanted me to come home with her to avoid whatever is going on."

Blake froze, her body tense, eyes darting between the window, the door, and Weiss' face.

Not noticing her partner's reaction, Yang looked at Weiss quizzically. "What the heck does she mean by that?"

Weiss stepped out of bed. "I don't know. It might have something to do with…" Her expression changed rapidly from confusion to fear. "No, no it couldn't." She immediately put on one of her fake smiles, learned from childhood, and turned to Ruby. "Go get Professor Goodwitch, we need to warn her."

Ruby looked between her teammates, eyes wide. "Oookay… what exactly am I warning Goodwitch about and why am I the one picked to knock on her door at three in the morning?"

Weiss sighed. "You're a tinsy bit faster than the rest of us."

Ruby nodded in understanding. "Okedoke. Now, what am I telling her?"

Weiss thought for a moment. "Tell her that my sister came to me and told me 'Atlas was on the move.' I believe the Atlas millitary might be planning an attack, one that could target Beacon."

Yang's eyes narrowed as she tried to get her befuddled brain to work. "Why Beacon? We're all that keeps the Grimm back! If he attacked Beacon, Ozpin would-"

Blake shook her head, speaking for the first time. "Not if Ozpin doesn't know we're under attack."

Ruby's eyes widened further and she vanished into a burst of petals, leaving only an open door and trail of rose petals.

Weiss walked towards the closet, praying that what she thought might be happening wasn't.

Blake looked at Weiss worriedly as she walked away. "Weiss, what in the world is wrong? I can hear you hyperventilating from here."

Weiss shivered as she shuffled through her identical sets of outfits, lost in dark possibilities. 'If Evander is moving, then maybe not even Ozpin can . . .'

Yang interrupted her bleak thoughts, waving her hand in front of Weiss' face. "Weiss? You're definitely not okay"

Weiss grabbed an outfit at random, not turning around. "I'm fine, honestly, get dressed."

Yang looked hurt and confused. "Weiss, if I was blind and deaf I could tell you aren't alright. You also usually don't lie to us, which is a dead giveaway something is really wrong."

Weiss could feel herself going deeper into the facade she had put up as she slipped on her combat skirt. "I don't want to talk about it. We should go find Ruby, I'm sure she's already gotten herself-"

Slap

Weiss turned to Blake in outrage. "What the - how dare you!"

Slap

Blake glared at Weiss. "Stop. Whatever it is that you're trying to hide here, it's completely obvious. We can both tell when you put one of your masks on. Give us a tiny bit of credit after living with you for 6 months."

Weiss's face appeared to collapse inwards on itself, her control vanishing. "I can't. I'm sorry, but I can't."

Blake opened her mouth to speak, but Yang interrupted, waving her scroll between the two. "Whatever your issue is, Ice Queen, it can wait. Professor wants us in Ozpin's office. Now, if not sooner."

Blake went to say something, but then thought better of it and ran to the closet.

* * *

The walk to the tower and subsequent elevator ride were taken in complete silence.

When the elevator doors finally opened, Yang nearly sprinted out, desperate to break the silence. "Professor, where's Ozpin? He was supposed to-" Her legs slowed. She felt like she was walking through water. Ruby was crying, kneeling on the floor. Glynda was cradling Ozpin's head, her usually immaculate clothes stained with blood. Ozpin was on the floor, a huge pool of red growing from a bloody hole in his chest.

There was dead silence as all three of them took in the scene.

Blake was the first one to recover. "Wha-who did this? How?"

Ruby turned to her and shook her head, eyes brimming with tears. "He was dead when we got here. She's just been holding him and muttering in a language I don't understand."

Glynda turned to her. "He's gone. I can't bring him back." Then she quietly began to cry.

Yang's mouth was dry. She tried to speak, to say something, anything to break the unnatural sound of Glynda Goodwitch crying.

Weiss spoke her voice filled with something terrifyingly cold. "This is Evander's work. He did this."

At the name Glynda's eyes shot up to meet Weiss's. "So you do know." She picked Ozpin up like a doll and walked towards the door. "In that case, warn Oobleck. Tell him to surrender to James, he won't kill anyone unless directly ordered too. If I stay it will bring him down on you. Don't bother throwing up the shield, that will only give James a reason to blast you out of existence from the bridge, where he doesn't have to watch you die." She turned to Weiss. "You should run like your sister suggested, if you do it now you might have a chance of getting these three out of any trouble they get into."

Yang could feel the back of her neck heating up as she glared at Glynda's retreating figure.

"You think that just because the enemy is dangerous we'll just give up and run?"

The shout echoed in the office for a second, and only the sound of the gears turning muted it.

After a second or two, Glynda turned to her, eyes angry. "You think I want to run!? With Ozpin gone the school is defenseless! All of the defenses except for the shield are coded to his aura!" She slumped, blinking her eyes rapidly. "The only thing we could do is turn on the shield and shoot back with our weapons. Against the Deliverance? That's like bees attacking a Goliath. The only thing that could come of that is our deaths. Ozpin could have shot it down with a thought, but he's gone."

Her eyes roved across each member of team RWBY, settling, last of all, on Yang.

"You four girls might be the best shot the world has at getting rid of Evander. I may never seen you again, but for the world's sake, I wish you luck."

As the elevator door slid shut, the emergency alarm began to ring, sending fear and panic through every level of the school.

* * *

Ironwood's desk rang. He hit the green button and spoke. "General Ironwood here. This had better be important."

The picture resolved, showing the courtyard in front of of Beacon. "Schnee-"

She cut him off. "Operation Lightning War. Give your orders."

His eyes widened. "That isn't exactly a joking matter Winter. That is top secret-"

She cut him off again. "Ozpin's dead. King's orders, commence Operation Lightning War. The Grimm are no longer a threat."

His mind reeled. "I - I need confirmation. This is… not normal, even for him."

A photo from Winter lit up his scroll. She had shot him in the chest, point blank range with a hollowpoint. Ironwood swore. "You...you did it. Mother of . . . you actually did it."

She chuckled and held up the black pistol. "Don't look so surprised. We both knew he didn't stand a chance against this."

Ironwood massaged his forehead. "Tell the king I understand."

Winter cut the connection. As soon as her image faded, Ironwood began to manipulate his scroll, activating the communications channel to all commissioned officers in the Atlesian military.

"This is Supreme Commander James Ironwood, clearance level Alpha-Sigma-Zero-Omega. Commence Operation Lightning War. All Atlesian military forces operating domestically will continue to execute prior orders, but civilian travel to and from other kingdoms is suspended on Code Alpha-Bravo-Zulu. The CCT will be down for maintenance until further notice. Code Alpha-Sigma-Dexter." He paused, knowing his next words would launch the world into the first war in 40 years.

"The First Division, under my command, will occupy Vale. The Second Air Division, under General Locus, will take control of Vacuo per rules of engagement Peacecraft. The Third Air Division, under General Felix, will prepare to move on Mistral immediately under rules of engagement Peacecraft. Your COs will receive specific orders; the objective is to subdue major targets before infantry support arrives. Expect significant opposition in Vale."

The warning about Vale was merely a precaution, as he expected Beacon to be little more than a minor nuisance without Ozpin. And Vale didn't even know what was coming.

As his words rang out across the CCTs, the special platoons rolled out of their bunks and donned their combat gear. The ordinary soldiers manned battle stations aboard ships the size of skyscrapers. In Vale, Vacuo and Mistral, a new sound was heard over the clamor of city life. A sound like a hurricane compressed, and a blur of motion. Then suddenly figures in combat fatigues dropping out of the sky, drawing weapons and rushing to predetermined objectives. Ironwood had unleashed the technological prowess of a nation 40 or 50 years ahead of its counterparts. In Mistral, a single man wearing green and black camo walked into the council room and abolished the existence of a nation that had stood for over a hundred years. In Vacuo, a impeccably dressed man in a suit woke each of the council members from their sleep with the butt of a gun, and calmly told them they would do whatever he ordered for the rest of their lives. As the most powerful military force in Remnant rose out of slumber, Ironwood sat back in his chair and stared at his scroll. Clearly visible from Ozpin's office at the top of Beacon, the Atlesian fleet turned towards the school and began dropping armored mechs and police troops into the city.

* * *

A/N: Chapter two is here, with new and improved word count!

Of course this might exist without my awesome group of beta's and editors, but it would be worse then terrible. So a huge thanks to the group who helped me with this chapter.

/u/TheSwedishMoose /u/clamzilla and /u/thebluehedgehog; For a great deal of grammatical editing, helpful discussion, and final polishing.

Atang (still don't know username), who convinced me to change my whole plot yesterday and made this chapter immeasurably better for it.

And a couple of anons off r/rwby who helped me last minute!

Also next chapter comes out whenever I get to it, probably two weeks from today, as I am going to the consumer electronics show for

work this week.

Thanks for your time,

Wizard

P.S. If you're interested in betaing for me, please send an email tom mrwizard71 . Thanks in advance!


	3. Time to Say Goodbye Part II

As the elevator activated and Glynda began to descend, Blake was the first of the girls to cut through the haze of shock left by the professor's words.

"She's right. Weiss, you're a celebrity. The Atlesians will recognize you. I'm a wanted criminal in Atlas, so whoever I go with would be in danger. Ruby, Yang, you're both protected by your family, and someone needs to get team JNPR."

Ruby's eyes were downcast, and her lower lip wavered, a sure sign of an oncoming denial of logic. Yang bent down, eyes locked with Ruby's and put her hands on her shoulders. "They'll be fine; we'll see 'em again soon. Plus, we've got scrolls, right?"

The small girl looked up at her friend. "Blake," she sniffed, rubbing her nose, "what are you going to do?"

Blake's face morphed from serious to a nervous little smile, and she blinked once at her team leader. "Don't worry about me, I'm very good at hiding. I was planning on finding Sun and Neptune. I'll be fine."

Yang gave the two of them a look, tears in her eyes, and wrapped her arms around Ruby. "I hate to say goodbyes. So let's not, 'kay?"

Weiss nodded, her face tight.

The faunus's last view of them was through the gap; the sisters were both crying, but neither moved. As soon as the door shut and the elevator began its downward path, she turned to Weiss, who was quietly trying and failing to blink away tears.

"Do you still have a way to get to your money?" Blake spoke quickly, trying to distract herself.

The heiress nodded again, rubbing at her eyes. "My dad is probably still in the dark. My sister hasn't spoken to him in years."

Blake thought for a second, her bow twitching. "If you need to get a message to me, contact someone at the Faynu Club in downtown Atlas."

Weiss said nothing for a moment, storing that information for further use. Then she spoke again, voice watery and quiet. "What about Ruby and Yang?"

"From what they told me, their dad and uncle are legendary among older hunters. They should be fine."

Weiss looked thoughtful. "I've heard about them from Winter, so I guess that could be right."

Blake glanced at the heiress, her eyes serious. "I know this may be hard, but you need to make up with your family. They're probably the only ones that'll be able to protect you from Evander."

The elevator door slid open, revealing a hallway, half-filled with students woken up by the alarms. It was chaotic, but not unexpected.

Blake turned to Weiss, one of the few friends that she'd really ever had. She had tried very hard not to cry this whole time, but all the blinking in the world couldn't stop the spots of wetness rolling down her cheeks. "I'll get the teachers, Ice Queen."

Weiss stepped forward and surprised her by enveloping her in a hug. "Goodbye Blake. I hope I see you again."

Blake hesitated for a split second, then returned the hug. "I hope so, too."

Weiss turned away and moved off down the hallway, knocking on doors and yelling. Blake turned and sprinted down the hallway towards Doctor Oobleck's office.

* * *

Deep inside, Ruby knew that what her sister had done was the correct decision, but it still hurt to know that team RWBY had split up. "What now, Yang? Do you think JNPR is awake yet?"

Yang chuckled. "The sirens are loud enough to wake Nora, so I'm sure they're all up."

The entire situation didn't make sense to Ruby. Atlas had killed Ozpin, and the Grimm would be coming in numbers that boggled the imagination very shortly, signing the Atlesians' death warrants if it wasn't stopped soon. Then she heard her uncle's voice cut through the rapidly descending haze of panic. When shit hits the fan, you'll know. When that happens, stay calm and get yourself and anyone you care about as far away as possible.

And with that thought she hopped out the window, jumped off the tower, landing hard enough to break a hole in roof and drop her aura by a considerable amount. She waited in the deserted dorm room for a half-second before Yang smashed through the roof, her aura glowing.

"Isn't destroying school property out of character for you?" She asked, eyes sparkling.

Ruby sighed. "Yang, normally I would agree, but since an entire Atlesian fleet is headed right towards us, I like to remember what Uncle Qrow always says."

Yang followed her sister out of the room, shaking the dust from her clothes. "When shit hits the fan, run like hell." She quipped, turning the corner. "Let's . . . Ruby?"

Ruby was using her semblance in short bursts, allowing her to easily outrun her sister. She was most of the way down the hall before her sister even got to the door, and had made it to JNPR's dorm in less than a minute. The door was locked, so she kicked it down, secretly hoping that they were all asleep and the sirens weren't really going off.

They were long gone, a note sitting on the desk. The words on it made Ruby's heart sink even lower than it had only moments before in Ozpin's office.

RWBY

We went to help one of the exchange students to try and help with whatever the emergency is. We'll be on the grounds.

Yang raced in several long seconds after Ruby read it. Out of breath, she stopped and glanced at Ruby before crossing the room and grabbing the note from her lifeless hand.

Now it was Yang's turn to take the lead, grabbing her sister on the shoulders and forcing Ruby to match her eyes. "Ruby, I know you can get them. Just go do it. I'll meet you at the service train that runs over the river into the commercial district."

Ruby looked up at Yang, eyes wide, but also showing some of the hardness that Yang had gotten used to in the past few months. "Sis . . . ."

Yang glared at her, feeling her body heat rise. "Don't even think we will get separated. This is bigger than JNPR realizes. Looks like someone thinks they can get a bunch of students together and fight." She sighed. "If it really is the Atlesian First, they'll need saving."

Ruby nodded, just once, then took her semblance to full power. She felt the wind press against her body and catch her cloak, effects that always came with using her semblance to this level, then navigated extremely rapidly towards the courtyard. Once there, she pulled up for a second, glancing around at the students arranged around the buildings. It was an ambush, and someone had put some thought into it. The ranged students were up high, using the columns as cover. Everyone else was out of the line of fire, hidden in the gardens or behind the columns. JNPR was hiding behind one column at the very front of the school, very nearly on the landing pad. Deliverance was lumbering towards the school. Its gunports and missile tubes were wide open, showing an arsenal Ruby didn't need to glance at to list: 130mm naval type guns, 30mm autocannons for dealing with weaker Grimm, 220mm armor-piercing rockets for use against goliaths and other large grimm, guided anti-ship missiles, infrared missiles, anti-Grimm torpedoes, and enough bombs to wipe all of Vale from history. Whoever was planning the defense didn't even have the firepower to dent the thing, but was willing to try anyway. Ignoring the fact that it had a support fleet large enough to capture all of Vale in a matter of minutes, which it looked like they had. Then again, Ruby didn't really care.

"Jaune!"

He nearly jumped into Pyrrha's arms. "RUBY!"

Nora immediately found it opportune to join in: "NORA!"

Pyrrha looked surprised at her friend's sudden appearance, then mildly annoyed at her teammates' outbursts. "Ruby, do you know what is going on? Cinder told us that the Atlesians might not be our friends anymore, but the current consensus is that they are coming to help."

Ruby was panting hard, hands on her knees. "Ozpin's dead; the Atlesians are the ones who killed him. Goodwitch is gone, and I don't know where the rest of the teachers are. We need to go, right now. Yang is waiting."

JNPR was collectively stunned for a couple of seconds, then Ren somehow managed to take in the huge bombshell Ruby had just dropped.

"If that's true, then this is not the place to be."

Ruby nodded, glad she could count on Ren to stay calm no matter what happened. "Weiss and Blake are gone." At the sudden looks of alarm that crossed their faces, she amended herself. "They're ok, but we split up. Yang is waiting at the service train, which shouldn't be watched - not unless he's planning to stop us with knights, which we can just punch through. Ren's right, staying here is a death sentence."

Ren and Nora glanced at each other, then nodded. Nora spoke for the two of them. "Lead the way, oh wise and wonderful."

Ruby shot across the courtyard, not bothering to look back, much less respond, until she reached the relative safety of the fountain. They were moving quite quickly across the courtyard, but there was a much larger problem.

The Deliverance was getting way, way too close for comfort. She could now hear the attack sirens and feel the wind from its massive engines. Ruby retreated behind the fountain, praying that the massive ship wouldn't just do a flyover and bomb the school to ashes.

Ruby saw movement out of the corner of her eye as one of the students up on top of the wall leaped out of cover and prepared an attack. Her clothes lit up, and a bolt of raw fire shot out of her hands, lacing across the sky in a moment.

Ruby chuckled quietly to herself, watching the blast shoot across the sky, headed at a target with the capability to cut it out of the air and return the shot a hundredfold. "Idiot."

* * *

Ironwood was watching a few stragglers race across the courtyard and wishing he had any other job in the universe, including Winter's, when a student stepped out from behind one of the many columns and fired a blast of red energy at the ship. Ironwood ignored it.

"Gunners, fire at will. I want to make an example."

The man watching radar systems paled. "Sir that's not a physical attack! It's Dust-based! The CIWS* won't touch it!"

Shit. Ironwood was unaware they had someone capable of that kind of firepower without Glynda. "Brace for impact." He spoke calmly, without betraying how fast his mind was racing.

The blast rocked the ship, passing through the shield like it wasn't there, which against a Dust attack, it wasn't.

"Captain, status report!"

The captain turned and glared at his monitors. "97% operational. Damage to portside bomb doors, minor damage to most of the port side. The main blast was absorbed by the reactive armor."

Ironwood grimaced. "One shot took away 3 percent of our operational capability at this range?" He swiveled in his seat, turning to his gunners. "Terminate the target with extreme prejudice."

They finished calibrating the guns and opened fire.

* * *

Ruby couldn't believe her eyes.

"How the hell . . .?"

That one woman had fired a single shot using nothing but her hands and left a smoking black mark on the now rapidly closing ship. That meant . . .

"Dust-based attack." Pyrrha had arrived, rolling into cover behind the fountain to stop near Ruby with her usual combat efficiency. "To launch something that potent at that range, she must be incredibly powerful."

Ruby grimaced, shaking her head. "She's still a fool. She must have burned most of her power for that one shot, and now they have a bead on her."

Right on cue, the deep booming sound of Deliverance's 130mm guns reverberated over the bay.

The woman leaped to the side with truly superhuman speed, flipping over the walls and unleashing a series of attacks from her hands as she moved. Defying all expectations for the third time that day, each seemed a great deal more powerful than the first.

Ruby counted, praying the rest of JNPR would arrive quickly.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight."

The 130mm shells impacted the tower and arches, blasting holes in the stonework and sending huge blocks tumbling towards the courtyard. Unfazed, the woman on the wall dodged again, throwing more fire faster than even Ruby could follow.

* * *

The first Ironwood knew they had a problem was when the Aura-Radar Officer spoke over the intercom. "Size 23 Dust-based attack incoming. All hands, brace for impact." Ironwood was no fool. He activated his arm and wrapped it around the support beam in the center of the bridge. Moments later, a series of shots lanced out from the woman on the walls, who had dodged the shells with ease. His mind raced as he tried to figure out who he was fighting. Then it hit him; he had missed it because it was so obvious.

His line of thought was cut off as the the whole world shuddered. The ship rocked backwards, a series of impacts hammering into it. Ironwood watched the captain fly over his head, and several of the other officers slam into various walls, and thanked his stars for the timely warning from the radar officer. As soon as he regained his feet he pressed the ship communication button and snarled.

"This is Ironwood. Weapons free. Rules of Engagement Zulu-Foxtrot-Peacecraft are now in effect. Fire at will. I say again, fire at will."

* * *

Ruby was already impressed, but what the black haired woman unleashed in her second set of attacks was beyond belief. The only person she had ever seen with that level of firepower was Glynda, who was world-renowned. However, Deliverance was the most powerful warship in the world. They were holding back, but the commander up there had just discovered that this mysterious powerhouse was really a threat.

Ruby turned to Pyrrha and Ren immediately. "We need to move!"

The Deliverance opened fire. Ruby had dreamed of those guns, but when she finally got to see them in real life all they inspired was terror. Beams of lead shot from the underbelly 20 and 30mm autocannons, and the massive 457mm main gun began to unfold from the belly of the monstrous ship. The 130's were still firing, but now the ones unable to train on Cinder were demolishing the buildings at an alarming pace.

Ruby pointed towards the corner of the dorm building, unwilling to risk going inside, and took off. Nora and Jaune adjusted their paths as Ren and Pyrrha followed her. Ruby could hear screams, could see what was left of the ambush opening fire with their hopelessly outsized weaponry, and watched the black haired woman dodge 30 or 40 shells, all the while firing her blasts of Dust. However, autocannons are notoriously hard to dodge, and with 40 guns firing 60 or 70 shells a minute apiece trained on her, the woman was obviously tiring. As she dove from cover to cover, Deliverance advanced over the school, guns pivoting to keep her under a constant stream of fire. Ruby raced around the corner, praying again and again that the bombs she knew the ship held wouldn't fall.

A voice spoke over the Deliverance's loudspeaker, overpowering the sounds of battle with the massed power of speakers. "This is General Ironwood of the Atlesian Armed Forces. Stand down, come out with your hands over your head, and do not fire. My ship will not fire unless fired upon. However, the school will cease to exist in exactly 20 minutes. Explosives do not discriminate, so please hurry up. Any wishing to surrender should move directly underneath the ship."

Some of the students began moving forward, whether to attack or surrender Ruby wasn't sure.

Not the woman. She was still fighting when Jaune finally made it to the corner and they raced away from the battle. Deliverance hung over everything in the predawn light, its guns revving up at the slightest sight of resistance. It forced them to move along the dorm building, running against the walls and hiding in its shadow. When they made it to the ruined tower and tracks, Ruby released the breath she wasn't aware she had been holding. Jaune and Pyrrha looked shell-shocked at best, but Nora and Ren were somehow keeping it together, their faces grim but composed. However, that wasn't the end of their problems.

"The train is automated. If I remember right, it won't leave for half an hour."

Ren was panting, head down in a dead sprint to just keep up with Ruby and Pyrrha. "That's too long. We'll have to make a go for it on foot."

Ruby nodded, then changed course. "We'll pick up the tracks and follow them into the commercial district. Yang will have heard, she'll probably be waiting at the trestle."

Despite Jaune's . . . speed issues, a hunter with aura enhancements is still far faster then most anyone else. They made it to the trestle in what seemed like no time at all, and Pyrrha only had to divert 4 sets of 20mm shells before the gunners moved to a different target.

Ruby leaped down into the trench that held the tracks before they went beneath the school and glanced around, her eyes panicked, looking for Yang. Then she was swept off her feet from behind. Her sister was crushing the life out of her, crying and saying something totally incoherent.

"Rubyohmygodtheshipanitangunand-"

Ruby put her hand to her sister's mouth. "I know Yang. I know. It's ok though. It's ok." Yang's loosened grip tightened again in another hug.

In Pyrrha's incoherence, Ren took the lead, somehow managing to remain totally calm as his only home came down in flames behind him. "We need to get moving. Ruby, dial up your locker before something happens to the building."

Ruby nodded, pulling out her scroll and entering the code. As soon as she finished inputting the code, they took off down the tracks, headed for the massive wooden structure. There was no response from the massive ship when they broke cover so Ruby allowed herself to slow down, not using her semblance. Yang already had her gauntlets on, but the locker was nowhere in sight. She was also carrying an unsealed envelope, with a picture sticking out.

Ruby shook her head. Judging by how Yang was stuffing it into her belt, she was going to continue her search. Ruby had hoped that Yang would give up eventually, but today was not going to be that day.

Pyrrha dropped back behind them, suddenly turning. Ruby whirled around to see what she was doing, only to watch in awe as Pyrrha used her semblance to redirect a 130mm shell into the river far below. Noticing the sheen of sweat break out on her brow, Ruby saw that Pyrrha couldn't run and keep them safe at the same time. "Pyrrha! I'll carry you, just keep the shells off of us."

Pyrrha looked briefly concerned, then nodded, sprinting over to Ruby between vollies.

Ruby grabbed the larger woman piggyback, and the group continued moving away, with Pyrrha focused on preventing any shells from hitting thier target, assuming they were the targets and not the ground to the sides of them.. While the red-haired girl had never fully explained her semblance to Ruby, it became obvious that whatever she did exerted force on her as well as on the metal.

By the time they reached the end of the bridge Ruby was staggering, and Pyrrha had stopped redirecting shots that weren't life threatening. The trestle had taken several direct hits, and Ruby dreaded to think what would happen if the service train survived long enough to make it's usual journey. However, she had more pressing matters to deal with.

While Ruby had plenty of time to think about what more than likely waited on the other side the george, she had expected to have Pyrrha and herself at least capable of fighting, and had not expected to be met by 3 people who were, from their weapons and neon green, black, and orange clothing, clearly Hunters. Ruby immediately named them Black, Orange, and Green. Not knights, not soldiers, not even specialists, but regular ordinary hunters. The ones who were supposed to be neutral. They were standing in the middle of the tracks, obviously there to block their escape.

Yang, as was her tradition, ignored all logic and decided that she was going the take on three hunters with only Ren and Nora for backup. She threw a punch, a burning trail following her fist as it smashed into Black. He didn't even waver. Then she fired Ember Celica and threw him backwards a foot or two. He backflipped and then rebounded, swinging his axe in a wide arc and sending Yang flying. When she landed, he was already on her, swinging his axe in a large downward arc. She was smashed into the railroad ties hard enough to dent them, and as he continued to exert pressure on her, Ruby watched her sisters aura flicker and then vanish. Her semblance, which had been the only hope for winning this fight, was now out of play.

"That's for being dumb enough to try and fight me," he muttered, transforming his axe into a long rifle and slinging it into a shoulder holster. "I don't want to hurt you kids, so please, let's do this nicely."

Ren barely had time to draw Stormflower before Orange had Ruby held in front of him, his double barreled assault rifle pressed against her back. "Jet over there is a nice guy. Be glad you're not dealing with specialists and come quietly."

Ren turned to Jaune, who nodded, eyes locked on Pyrrha and the double barrel pressed into his friends backs. Nora let out a subdued "Awww;" but she set Magnhild down.

Green, who hadn't even moved, chuckled. "Wise choice." He reached down to his waist and pulled out a radio. "We got them. Come and get us, but keep low. That crazy bitch on the walls is still going at it."

The radio responded instantly. "Ten Four, Black, Alpha-Three. We are enroute. ETA five Minutes. Looks like you get a front row seat for the demo core's big moment."

As soon as he heard the radio click off, the one holding Ruby let go, and the axeman stepped away from Yang. Ruby immediately used her semblance to rush to Yang, followed by Jaune. Orange looked surprised at her speed, then even more surprised at the sight of the petals as they appeared behind her, and he walked over to the one with the radio and began conversing in urgent tones.

Ruby was oblivious, checking Yang's vitals and then just pressing herself against her sister. "You thought you could take a direct hit and use your semblance, didn't you? There was nobody to back you up; you nearly got yourself killed."

Jaune looked shocked and slightly terrified at the realization of the strategy Yang had employed, but he kept silent, allowing the sister to confirm that the other was ok. Ruby realized she was crying, but didn't care enough to stop.

Then Orange walked over and looked down at Ruby. "Girl, you wouldn't be related to a Summer Rose from team STRQ, would you?"

Ruby looked up sharply, eyes wet. "She was my mom."

He took a step back at the past tense. "Son of a bitch. She saved my life from an Arto Alpha in the far north of Mantle. I'm sorry to hear that."

Ruby glared at him, silver face contorted as she lashed out. "Oh, you're sorry, are you? Sorry for beating up my sister and threatening me at gunpoint?! Sorry for breaking your sacred oath and betraying the trust of the human race?!" Her voice rose to a shout.

He winced, holding his hands up as if to ward off her accusations. "This wasn't exactly my idea, darling. According to Ironcock, your guy Ozpin was powering the Grimm with his aura." Jaune and Nora both broke out laughing at that, but he ignored them. "I don't know what the fuck the general pulled, but I watched films from all over of attacks on the defenses just vanishing. One second, an ursa is tearing some poor bastard a new one, then it's just gone. All over. He told us we could either help to establish peace, or be considered a threat to the safety of the Atlesian state. The vast majority didn't fancy taking their chances, so we ended up here."

Yang and Ruby looked at each other, then Ruby nodded. Standing, she turned to him. "We knew Ozpin had died, but I'm not sure what to make of that last bit."

JNPR looked collectively stunned at her easy agreement. Jaune was the first to speak up, directing his question to the both of them.

"You're sure? Nobody lied to you-"

Ruby closed her eyes as she cut him off, face pained. "I saw the body. Glynda told us some things, then just said she had to leave. Haven't seen her since."

Ren and Nora said nothing, their faces ashen. Jaune and Pyrrha just gaped at her.

The Hunter turned back to his counterparts. "These fuckers just confirmed what Ironprick said, about the old wizard being dead."

The one called Jet shook his head. "Damn everything. If that's right, then I'm guessing what happened with the Grimm in those vids is also right. And how do we celebrate the removal of the greatest threat in the history of mankind? With warfare." He shook his head again, eyes closed. "Goddamn."

Ruby looked over at him. "If you're so pissed off, do something about it."

His foul mouthed partner glanced over, chuckling. "Like what? Let you go? Into a hostile city in that condition? Yeah-fucking-right. You'd run into a squad of Knights left down the tracks just to make sure we didn't try anything. Then we would be on the run. No support, no backup, the enemy has aerial surveillance and partial public cooperation. I think I'll stay right here."

Jet winced at the brutally honest statement, but nodded in agreement, turning towards the school, his back to the group. "He's right. We're signed members of the Hunter Brigade of the first Atlesian military division. We go AWOL, we'll have specialists with orders to bury our bodies on us faster then you can blink."

Ruby said nothing, following his gaze to the massive airship hanging over Beacon, now surrounded by a swarm of support craft that were ferrying people up and down from the central buildings.

They just stood like that quietly, the whole group of them watching people crawl over the wreckage like ants.

All at once, Deliverance turned and began to move away from the wreckage of their home. The support fleet also moved off, leaving only a single ship hovering above the tower.

* * *

Ironwood had to do it personally. He couldn't leave anyone with the knowledge that they might have blown up any one of the 43 students that were still unaccounted for. The vaults were just as Evander had told him, glowing black symbols painting the walls, Dust, and more glowing symbols. He had personally placed the charges down there and taken the pictures they would need. Now all he had to do was press the button. He turned away from the rubble, standing and walking into the landed AAC.

"Take us up."

The pilot nodded somberly at his words and gave a muttered, "Yessir." The engineers had been incredulous when he had ordered them to demolish the school, not even reacting to the news that there might be as many as 40 people trapped down there. He was going to do it nice, do it safe, get everyone out early. However, no plan survives first contact with the enemy. He still had no idea why the Black Queen was at Beacon. She had caused three of the ten confirmed casualties today, and by her resistance forced him to abandon his plan of leaving the school intact. Trapped in his thoughts, he barely noticed Winter handing him the detonator. She had requested to come on this last flight, and he had obliged. Her sister was on the missing list, but she somehow seemed assured that Weiss had escaped. Probably not worth the amount of trouble it would cause to call her out on that. He reached down, feeling the button, knowing the terrible power down below.

He wondered how many were still down there. He wondered how many lives he would rend into tiny pieces by pressing this button. He knew he was wasting time, he knew they needed to make it appear that time was of essence, but these were lives they were playing with. Then his line of thought was cut off. Winter had placed her hand atop his. He got the message.

Standing, he walked to the console and looked through the windshield at the rubble.

Then he pressed the button.

* * *

*CIWS; Weapons systems designed to literally fire a stream of lead and cut oncoming projectiles apart to stop them from impacting the ship. Used commonly aboard modern naval vessels.

A/N Sorry this took so long. However, this chapter is much better then it could have been. As always, thanks to my editors, /u/Challos, /u/clamzilla, Atang, and especially my head editor /u/TheSwedishMoose. If you're interested in helping with the editing please pm me. This Chapter may be edited at a later date, as I am publishing without direct approval from a few of my editors.


	4. Mirror, Mirror

**A/N; I really wish I had something better to give you today. I waited to put it out anyway, but this isn't exactly the quality I wanted. For those of you not reading on publish day, today is exactly one year since the creator of RWBY, Monty Oum, passed away.**

* * *

She was numb.

Weiss had cried when upon splitting up with Blake, but as soon as she had begun knocking on doors, those feelings vanished. The faces of her classmates pushed her deeper into the mask she had donned after they parted she turned to own task. The had all reacted differently, some trying to simply run for the Grimm infested hills, others heading for the river, but she knew the Atlesian military. Only a very few the students had a shot at getting out of the campus. When Weiss was stopped by a hunter team on the main landing area, all she had to do to continue on her way was state her name and affirm relation to the SDC. Getting out of Vale was almost as easy, all it took was a swipe of a credit card and she had an airbus taking her to Patch and a ticket on the last airship to Atlas, possibly for the months if Ironwood had suspended travel between kingdoms. All that she could see of Beacon was a column of smoke in the distance as her ship rose into the air.

She didn't pretend to understand what the army thought it was doing, nor did she understand any of what had happened thus far today. She knew Evander had something to do with it, but destroying one of the only four locations in the whole world where humans could be safe seemed incredibly wasteful. His actions and presumed motive of world domination didn't line up, which meant she was missing information. With the Cross Continental Transmit Towers down, possibly forever, doing research was impossible, not that she would have found anything anyway. All that was left was to wait for them to move again, and hope she gained more than the world lost. For now, she was trapped within the airbus with only herself, her sword, and her thoughts. Weiss could halt her emotions, stopping them from affecting her, but it was only a pause and when the dam broke, they would be just as bad all at once. No, sitting on this airship was the best time, with nothing else she could do

' _Blake might be lying under the rubble of the building that had been their home for the past year. Ruby or Yang could be too.'_ She had no way of knowing. ' _Anyone I had met in the past year, the best year of my life, could be dead or dying right now._ ' Weiss slowly took a breath, in and out. Before she even let herself begin to cry, static blared through the speaker system, nearly knocking her out of her seat. Ironwood's voice came through a second later.

"This is General James Ironwood of the Atlesian Armed Forces, Supreme Commander of the United Armies of the World Government, broadcasting on all radio frequencies. Please excuse my interruption, but the CCT in Mistral has been damaged." He paused, drawing in a long breath. "The purpose of this broadcast is to explain the events that have recently transpired. These events were the cumulation of a scientific process started three weeks ago when one of our scientists discovered that the particles released by Grimm upon death all move towards a single point, Beacon Academy." He paused, letting the implications of that sink in.

It seemed the time for emotions was not quite yet upon her, and that Ironwood was going to hand-feed the entire world the information she had been planning to fight for. Weiss was nearly positive that this story was a fabrication. The whole thing had to be, since three weeks was not nearly long enough for a full investigation, nor would it make sense to just have Ozpin killed without more evidence. Ironwood's voice again filled the airbus, and this time he revealed even more.

"We immediately sent agents to investigate what was going on, who discovered a series of vaults underneath the Beacon Tower, sealed to all but Professor Ozpin. We believe he was the only person aware of their existence. Ozpin was eliminated as soon as we determined that he was complicit. What followed his death was unexpected: a number of the Grimm still living vanished instantly, and every remaining Grimm except for those already engaged began moving at speed towards Beacon. The school's defenses came under attack within minutes, with greater numbers and concentrated force than had been seen since the Great War. To my horror, I was forced to order the destruction of Beacon Academy using explosives. When the dust from that explosion settled, the Grimm, even ones too far to be caught by the blast, were just gone. Atlesian forces engaged elsewhere reported the same thing; the Grimm had just vanished." He paused again, and she could practically see Evander smiling as the crown fell into place on his head. There was only one thing left for Ironwood to do before the trap would be complete. He spoke again, driving the final nail into the world's coffin.

"Based on the breakdown of inter-kingdom relations over the past 100 years, our analysts have given us an estimate for worldwide warfare lasting more than a hundred years upon the destruction of the Grimm, if we did not act immediately. In order to understand the magnitude of the conflict, simply imagine the massive amounts of resources each kingdom would have had if able to expand into the land once held by the Grimm. In order to prevent this, a little under 6 hours ago, the Atlas council voted in secret to create a world government, which will be made up of 40 representatives, 10 from each Kingdom. To prevent resistance against the establishment of the world government, I ordered the deployment of the Atlesian Air Fleet, Atlesian Army, and other support organizations to Vale, Vacuo, and Mistral. If you have questions, please direct them to the nearest member of the Atlesian military."

The radio clicked off, and Weiss sat back in her seat. She knew that the general was acting under orders, but this hoax seemed insane. There was no way it could be believed. However, Ironwood wasn't a fool or a bootlicker, so if Evander had finally gone completely insane he would have stood up to him. There was the possibility that they just planned to control the world through force, but from Weiss's impression of Ironwood that would not sit well with the General.

As Patch came into view out the window, she wondered what had led to this. She, as someone who heard everything that happened in the Winter Palace, had only heard operation "Lightning War" mentioned as a joke. It was the plan for the capture of all three cities simultaneously. For whatever reason, Evander had made that joke a reality.

Again a voice crackled through the radio, with a good deal less force. It sounded as though the pilot had turned it down.

"This is air control for the Gordemere Airport, Patch. Identify yourself."

She could hear the muted sound of the taxi pilot offering his identification and license, then the controller responded.

"The airport is under a state of emergency. The incoming pad is open, and we are evacuating. Make your own landing please."

The pilot took the controller at his word and started his descent.

When the doors shot open, Weiss was met by 6 Valean hunters. They tore into the ship, checking every nook and cranny. She had expected an inspection, but ...

"Isn't this a bit excessive?" She said mildly.

One of the men turned to her, an easy smile playing across his lips for a moment. "Yes. Unfortunately for you, that's just what an imposter would say." His face was covered with a smattering of stubble, and he wore a light grey button up shirt.

Weiss pursed her lips. "I'm a Beacon student. I just want to get home. I promise I won't fight you, I just want to go home before they block transport."

They all looked over at her words, and a low laugh echoed from one of the men behind her. She racked her brains for something that she could use to gain their trust.

The man in grey spoke again. "All the ships are taken, I'm afraid. You'll have to come with us." He wore an odd tattered cape, and it seemed to wave behind him even though he stood completely still.

She realized she had to give something away and hope they didn't recognize her. "I was on a team with a Signal student named Ruby Rose an-"

The change the man's face showed at the name was extraordinary. He went from calmly checking the walls for switches to pinning her to a wall before Weiss could even blink in surprise. "You're on a team with Ruby?! Is she alive?! What happened to Yang? Is Yang alive?!"

Weiss was unable to breathe, his arm pinning her to the wall. She didn't dare fight back with five hunters looking on, so she tapped on his arm, opening and closing her mouth like a fish to get the point across.

The hunter looked confused for a moment, then pulled his arm off her neck. She slumped to the ground.

"I don't know. We split up aft-"

"You split up with your teammates in the middle of a war zone?" This time the interruption came from a large man with - Weiss did a double take - the exact same pale purple eyes as Yang.

He was wearing a pair of shorts in mid winter, which was odd, and had what appeared to be a socket embedded his shoulder pads, which was more than odd. His weapon was strange as well, a hammer with a piece of metal sticking out halfway down the shaft, a ball joint attached to the end.

While Weiss would have loved to puzzle out how exactly he fought with a 2 meter tall hammer attached to his shoulder, she was still in a bit of a situation. They appeared to know Ruby and Yang, probably close relations. So she hoped Ruby hadn't written home much, and continued to bluff her way through. "Yes, yes we did. I don't know why you care so much, but I'm trying to get back to Atlas, and they were trying to get into Forever Fall and come this way."

His partner's eyes narrowed. "Really, so that explains why they didn't just come with you?"

Weiss was desperately trying to come up with a response to that question that didn't involve telling them that she was the heiress to the company with the biggest influence on the Atlesian offensive when the man who she assumed was Yang's dad chuckled.

"Qrow. She obviously isn't a Belladonna, so who on their team is left?"

Qrow glanced at Yang's dad. "Wha-." He paused, then his eyebrows drew together even further. "Oh. _Oh shit._ " Then he glanced around at the other 4 hunters gathered in the main area, all looking expectantly at him.

Weiss could have said the exact same thing.

She knew her best chance was to continue bluffing and hoped they trusted Ruby and Yang enough to let her go. "Well now that that's dealt with, I hope you can trust I'm on your side. Glynda suggested I go back to Atlas and try and do some damage from the inside. I'll take any of the Atlesian Signal Students you trust with me."

Qrow looked between her, Taiyang, and the remaining hunters. "I hate to say this, but we don't have anything long range enough to get you to Atlas. You'll have to come with us."

Weiss was unsurprised. Her whole plan had hinged on acting like a normal student once she arrived on the island, getting on a flight to Atlas before Ironwood cut off inter-kingdom travel. Apparently Vale was better prepared than she had calculated for.

"So I'm your prisoner. Just so you're aware, my father never pays a ransom, ever."

Qrow grimaced at the memories evoked by her words. "First off, I was involved in that clusterfuck, so let's not talk about it. Second of all, we are trying to save the highest number of lives here. That means all of the long range ships are filled to total capacity, and anything that _might_ make it to somewhere safe is headed out already. We simply can't spare any ships. I understand what you're trying to convince us of, but it just doesn't matter."

One of the other hunters broke in. "Sir, who exactly is she?!"

Taiyang smiled quickly, then lied to his face. "Not even I have the clearance to know her real name." Qrow immediately shot him a glare, but Yang's father just shrugged at him.

The hunter looked at him quizzically for a second, then turned to Qrow, his face returning to attention. "If she's an operative I doubt clearing the ship is going to be necessary."

Qrow nodded. "You are correct. Go help with the evacuation."

The other team walked off the ship. Weiss watched until they were out of earshot, then turned to Qrow, who was obviously in charge. "What if I took a cargo bullhound, one of the larger cargo bullhead variants. I can use my semblance to get to Atlas, and carry anyone else who wants to come."

Qrow thought for a second, rubbing his hands through his hair. "No idea how you plan to use your semblance, but I'm going to assume since you asked for a cargo freighter that you'll need a _lot_ of dust. In that case, we have a recently . . ." He paused, scratching his head for a moment. " _liberated_ SDC short range cargo ship for on island use only. It's got one of the SDC's new scanners, so only an authorised SDC employee can use it."

Weiss's face contorted at the thought of her father's employees in danger. "Any crew member will also be granted the opportunity to come." Her voice was ice cold, dripping with threats and unspoken promises.

Qrow chuckled. "What did you think we were going to do sweetheart?" His voice was taunting and slightly chilled. "Take them as prisoners?"

Weiss glared at him and prepared to unleash a verbal tirade, but Taiyang spoke up, his voice despondent. "You don't know anything about what might have happened to Ruby and Yang?"

The tension remained in the cabin, but both Weiss and Qrow realized they were glaring at a friend of a friend. Weiss thought for a half second before she looked at the ground. "If I had to guess, they are probably _prisoners,_ " spitting the word at Qrow, using all of her considerable training to make it an insult, "of General Ironwood. Most of Beacon is at this point."

Qrow's expression morphed into a wide smile, and he chuckled loudly. "Oho. That's how the bastard's playing? Mister tough guy? That'll make this all the more fun then."

Taiyang was also smiling now. Weiss glared at the both. "I'm not even going to ask how you plan to help them, but I want to ask you both not to die. It would probably wreck my teammates."

Qrow chuckled. "Whaddaya know, the little Schnee has a heart of gold."

Taiyang and Weiss glared at him in unison, but Taiyang broke their concentration with a gesture towards a large freighter parked slightly away from the others.

"Your ship is right there, just don't get shot down. According to our sources the convoy protection agencies are all being contacted by Atlas."

Weiss scoffed. "Who in their right mind would shoot down an SDC cargo freighter with the heiress aboard?"

Qrow over his shoulder at her smiling slightly. "At least you're not a total idiot."

If looks could kill, Weiss would have had a body to bury. "I understand my family has enemies, but not among the CPA's. After all, we provide 99% of their business."

Taiyang looked at her, his face thoughtful. "Fair enough." He turned to Qrow. "You can go do something productive."

Qrow immediately opened his mouth to argue, but Taiyang cut him off. "I think you'll agree, especially based on past experience, that I can beat one little Schnee?"

Qrow nodded slowly, chuckling as he did so, then jogged across the airfield towards the rising skyline of Signal in the distance.

Taiyang immediately turned back to Weiss, his face apologetic. "He's got a lot of stuff on his shoulders right now. That's just how he deals with stress."

She froze her face into a smile, unwilling to join him in any more petty conversation. "How soon can I leave? The Atlesians will be here in less than half an hour, judging from how the battle went over there."

Taiyang held up his left arm, pointing to the far side of the field. "There you are. The Atlas exchange students are already there with the SDC contractors, since we only wanted to set one group of guards."

Weiss allowed her smile to edge upwards. "How . . . fortunate." She drew out the pause, knowing it would make him uncomfortable.

When the SDC employees saw her following a hunter towards them, they looked shocked. More then that, they looked terrified. The Atlas students knew vaguely who she was, but they didn't understand the gravity of that particular misconception. However, Weiss immediately allayed the fears of the whole group.

"We're going back to Atlas. Get on board."

Hope lifted their faces, but they were prisoners until someone said otherwise, so their first concern went to the hunters guarding them. For their part, the hunters immediately unloaded the responsibility by looking to Taiyang. He nodded, and they moved over to converse with him. The SDC pilots stood, assuming she had bought him off. She spared one glance for Taiyang, then turned to the captain of the freighter, her voice cold and commanding.

"If you could land on water and reload the engines with Dust, without fear of Grimm, could you get us to Atlas?"

He thought for a second, then nodded slowly. "I have no idea how we could accomplish that, but with the amount of dust this thing has in cargo, it's theoretically possible."

She smiled. "I can freeze the water with a relatively small amount of dust using my semblance, and we can land and reload the engines. However, we must leave now. The Atlas army is planning to cut off travel between kingdoms so I need to get back to Atlas as soon as possible. I'm sure you guys want to get home as well." The SDC employees nodded and started moving towards the ship. The Atlas students looked extremely surprised, then turned to her, standing as they did so. One of them, wearing what appeared to be wearing a large suit of mechanical armor with the Adel logo on it, spoke, his voice quiet and cautious. "You're just going to give us a ride out of the kindness of your heart?"

Weiss giggled at him. "No, I'm giving you a ride because I need people to help load the engines when we land."

Fawkes Adel popped his visor off and held out his hand for her to shake. "A Schnee never does anything out of the goodness of their heart."

She took his hand, her smile matching his. "Get aboard, all of you. We'll be leaving shortly."

* * *

 **A/N A short chapter, but thanks for bearing with the less action filled sections. Next chapter is Blake, then we go back to the war. Thanks as always to my editors, /u/theswedishmoose, /u/clamzilla, and /u/thebluehedgehog**

 **Chapters are now semi-weekly. Technically that means one every two fridays, but really it means when my editors get them done I'll publish them, but if I get one done in a week I'll save them for writer's block.**


	5. From Shadows

When the attack on Beacon started, Blake was in the eastern dorms. She had stopped for breath outside of CRDL's dorm and was seriously considering letting them figure it out on their own. Then there was a series of thuds, sounding a bit like they had come from the courtyard. The noise that followed was all too familiar. Whizzing, shrieking, then a series of muffled thuds. Then buildings falling collapsing, crashing, crushing.

"SON OF A FUCKING BITCH"

Apparently, Sky Lark knew what 130mm guns sound like. He came rolling out of the door in his armor (CRDL would have had combat class first period) and laid flat next to Blake until the fire stopped. Blake stood up and then dove for the floor again as more shells impacted the front walls. More sounds joined the blasts, until it was like a rolling barrage of thunder. The rest of CRDL sprinted out the door, then for some reason looked at her for guidance. Blake grimaced, then pointed towards the port by the foot of the Beacon cliffs and took off running.

She told herself she felt bad for leaving them, but the building could come down at any moment, and there just wasn't time to try and drag them. Either they would come or they wouldn't.

Didn't make it any easier. She hated the fact that she hated water, and it had caused problems more than once on missions in Vacuo back in her White Fang days.

"Where to now, Blake?" Cardin Winchester and the rest of team CRDL tagging along for her swim in Vale Bay was not helping. At all.

Blake glared at him. "You'll have to leave the armor here."

His eyes widened at the thought of leaving his precious armor behind. "I can swim in it, otherwise I couldn't have gotten it approved."

She didn't have time for this. "We'll be in water for at least 3 hours! The extra weight will kill you!"

He obviously hadn't gotten the length of time it would take to swim from Port Beacon to somewhere safe through his abnormally thick skull. Blake growled in frustration, then cut the sound short when Russell looked at her in surprise. ' _Oh right, normal humans don't usually make noises,'_ she thought sarcastically. ' _Of course I get stuck with these bastards'_

He reached up to his straps and reluctantly pulled off his chestpiece. His team followed suit and she began to hope for their idiotic souls. Unfortunately for everyone, that's when the Atlesian Air Force decided to check if Port Beacon was empty.

The Atlas Attack Craft was Atlas's premiere ground attack gunship. It was basically a bullhead, but instead of seating, the AAC had two gatling guns and 4 rocket pods carrying eighty 82mm rockets.

Blake had two options. She could either try to save CRDL and probably die in the process, or she could run.

The AAC's guns began to spin up, and Blake raised her hands above her head, leaving Gambol Shroud at her hip. Thankfully, CRDL followed her example. The ship dropped several Knights. However, the pilot let the guns spin down, which was what she was hoping for.

As the Knights landed she shoved Cardin into the river. He opened his mouth, but his shout was got cut off when he landed in the brackish water.

"Get into the river!" She shouted, Gambol Shroud blazing in the general direction of the Knights. Thankfully Sky wasn't a total fool and dove into the water, yelling for his teammates to follow. Russel and Dove glanced at the ACC's glowing 20mm gatlings and threw themselves into the river, followed by Blake.

As she dove into the freezing water, her eyes closed immediately from the cold. Even underwater, she could feel the AAC open fire. She opened her eyes to a sight unlike any she had ever seen. Bullets shot through the water, making unholy sounds and leaving trails of bubbles. Knowing she was abandoning CRDL, she swam back under the pier, unable to see them through the murk. Blake came up three pilings back, and immediately looked back towards CRDL. She could see the other side of the shore, and CRDL was nowhere in sight, but the AAC had stopped firing, so she supposed they were dead or safely floating downriver.

Now she was trapped under the goddamn pier while they stood around up there and hoped for someone to climb back out.

* * *

Sun hated not knowing what was going on. He hated being caught unaware. He also strongly disliked waking up early. So when his townhouse's window blew open and a dripping wet Blake got him out of bed by slapping him, he knew that it was not going to be a good day.

"What the hell-"

Blake's hand shot out, clamping around his mouth. Her other hand was wrapped around Neptune's face.

"Shh."

Neptune was the first to speak when Blake removed her hands from their faces.

"Why are you so wet?" He blurted.

Blake looked tired. "Swam from Port Beacon."

Neptune's eyes went went wide. "What!? That must have taken-"

"Three and a half hours. Do _not_ remind me."

Neptune shuddered and rubbed his shoulders with his hands. Sun ignored his friend's antics. "What the hell happened?"

She sighed, leaning sitting down against the wall. "It would be easier to show you guys. There should be a video on your scrolls."

Neptune grabbed his off the table. He tapped it three or four times, then sighed. "It's been messed up since you got water on it Sun."

Sun hopped out of bed and threw on his shirt. "You mean since you threw it across the room." He grabbed his own device from the nightstand and keyed his passcode in, then groaned. "The CCTs are down, says here 'unscheduled maintenance'" He tapped a few more times, then opened a video link.

Ironwood's voice, distorted by the recording and scrolls bad speaker system, leaped into the room.

"This is General James Ironwood of the Atlesian Armed Forces, Supreme Commander of the United Armies of the World Government-" Sun paused the video, turning around to look at Blake.

Blake said nothing, but her face told the sad story.

"Blake . . . Where is the rest of your team?"

She blinked once, shaking her head. "Not sure. They're alive, I think. The Atlesians launched a bombardment of the school after some students fought back, so we all started out separated. We talked briefly, so I know their overall plans." She sighed, then blinked again.

Sun raised an eyebrow, then grabbed his scroll with his tail and read aloud from it "Ozpin was eliminated . . . Grimm have supposedly vanished. . . total takeover of Remnant. . . This sounds a bit more like the end of the world as we know it."

Neptune was looking back and forth between the two of them worriedly. "Blake, what are you going to do?"

She glanced at him, then stared out the window for a long second. When she looked back, her face was calm and collected. "I'm going to start a war. Weiss is going to the SDC. Ruby and Yang have gone to find their dad and uncle. Atlas demolished Beacon, so they started it. We're going to finish it. I don't know what you guys are going to do, but whatever you decide to do, if Atlas is your enemy, you'll find us."

Sun immediately burst out laughing. "Blake you're _seventeen_. Even if you were a terrorist for a while, you aren't about to go out and just start blowing up buildings and not get beat like a dog and sent to prison or executed."

Blake glared at him while Neptune looked relived. She sighed. "I have a lot of contacts, a lot of powerful people who know me. I'm going back."

Sun's face changed from his usual easygoing smile to something far more determined. He reached for his scroll, tapping several times. "No, you're not. Those terrorists are far worse than Atlas."

Blake sighed, and turned toward the door. "You won't stop me. Your gunchucks are buried under a hundred feet of rubble. Get a job doing heavy lifting or bouncing for a club. That's all hunters are good for now."

Sun activated his aura, throwing a heavily enhanced sucker punch. Blake's shadowy form vanished, and she threw him into the wall.

She turned to him, eyes watery. "Goodbye Sun."

He growled and threw himself into a flying tackle. She shadowed herself and sprinted for the door. Neptune was already blocking her, but she leaped into the air, wrapping her arms around his head and smashing him into the floor in a headlock. As she moved again for the door, Sun smashed into her from behind, wrapping himself around her waist. She shadowed, but was caught by a spinning kick from Neptune, who was striking at her from his position on the floor. She backflipped to absorb the force, ending up five or six feet from Sun, who blocked the doorway again, panting.

She glared. "You do realize I have gambol shroud on me."

Sun smiled as sweetly as he could given the circumstances. "I do."

She glared some more. "I don't want to do this."

He smiled some more. "Then don't."

She was about to go for her weapon when she felt a barrel press itself into her back.

"Blake, sit down and let's think this out. This gun is capable of easily puncturing most hunter's aura. If I fight you with it, someone will get hurt." Neptune's voice was . . . odd. Steady, with a hint of steel, but at the same time pitched to carry.

Blake laughed, shadowed, and grabbed the gun, flipping over Neptune and drawing Gambol Shroud at the same time. The gun was nearly a foot long, with a double grip and a pearl handle. The loading mechanism was similar to that of a single shot rifle from before the Great War, but huge. The bullets that would load into that would be closer to a cannon shell than an ordinary bullet. It weighed enough that Blake's arm trembled from holding it. Neptune never even tried to fire it, obviously afraid of injuring her.

Neptune dove for cover immediately, but Sun sprinted at her, trying to get the gun.

She slammed the handle of the gun into his face and sprinted out the door.

She could hear Sun calling her name, but she was a fair bit faster then him, so she had outrun him by the time she reached the lobby. She left Neptune's strange gun there and stepped out into the early morning light.

The city was deserted. There were Atlesian soldiers who definitely hadn't been there when she had run by on the roof only a few minutes earlier. They were moving south along one of the cross streets, so she kept parallel to them on the next street over, assuming their unit was running a hatched search pattern. Blake saw no more patrols until she reached Seventh Street. Her safe house was on the corner of Seventh and Sons, halfway across the city. The idea of making it there today was ludicrous, even if the airbuses were running. They weren't, so she checked into a hotel, noting the Faunus at the counter. She could catch the seventh street airbus from the door if they returned to normal running. She very purposely tried her white fang account first, which though it was denied now, would probably tell them where she was.

She wasn't worried about the fang killing her. No, she knew Adam too well for that, and she knew he would want her back.

She was unaware just how right she was.

* * *

Adam Taurus was many things. A rebel, a freedom fighter, a rights activist, a hunter, a soldier. Above all though, he was a leader. A commander of men and women, someone who could turn any situation on it's head just by giving orders. By necessity, leaders are always adaptable. So when all his plans were turned on their head by events totally beyond his comprehension, Adam did not flounder.

Instead, he thrived. "Perry, take your regiment and work your way through the industrial district in plainclothes. Tell people that Atlas is here to return things to the way they were before the Rights Revolution. Benford, you move through the agriculture district doing the same. I'll take the lower residential district and the slums. Deerie, walk over to Junior's and tell him I want a meeting. His time and place. Then find Neo and have her break Roman out."

His lieutenants nodded. They were almost as frustrated as him to be working with humans, but nobody wanted that monster following them around. That time was over now though. They would now have plenty of recruits, plenty of donors, and a target rich environment. _What could possibly go wrong?_

* * *

The building was low and squat, sitting on a Y shaped intersection in the lower residential district of Vale. Officially, it was the "Xoing Club and Bar". In reality, it was the center of Vale's criminal underworld. Not that anything illegal ever happened there. The place was sacred, under a permanent truce. Roman Torchwick could sit down and have a drink with the head of the VPD and neither would have anything to fear. That said, most illegal things that happened in Vale were somehow related to it. It was often said that the bartender knew everything that happened in Vale, legal or not.

Blake hated the place. She had been there a number of times, and it never got any better. That said, it was the only way to find Adam on her terms, so there she found herself. It was still midmorning, so there were only a few small time gangsters chatting at the bar as she walked towards the main bar, and towards Junior. He was speaking to a man in a red shirt and pants setting up some meeting or another.

"Yeah yeah yeah, my time my place. Next open slot is 7 am this Wednesday. Meet me here. No I don't want you to bring me anything." He hung up his scroll and smiled that big fake smile at her. "Well if it isn't Blake. It's been awhile since Adam tore this place apart looking for you. I like the bow, really seems…. with the times."

She glared at him, lips drawn back. "Spare me Junior. I want to meet with Adam, and I want to do it here. Give him a call for me and I'll owe you a favor. No killing or illegal stuff, maybe some intimidation."

Junior laughed. "Straight to the point. Alright, I'll play ball. Adam's coming to my place for a meeting this afternoon anyway. I'll need your number."

Blake raised an eyebrow. "You realize the CCT is down?"

Junior had already reached for his own scroll. "I have it on good information that it will be back up by the end of the month."

She sighed and held out her scroll, tapping it to his and sharing her contact info.

Junior's smile widened even further. "Well, you've got an hour or four to burn. Would you like a drink?"

Blake glared at him some more.

* * *

 **A/N: Well um. Sorry. I gave up on this fic. It's been what.. Six months? Ok yeah ouch. Anyway, I'm back now, until I get writers block again. Also published The Remnan Age, a space fic. So check that out. Next chapter will cover the political fallout of the situation, the Battle of Patch, and the Evacuation. Qrow PoV, WHOO.**

 **Thanks are due to my editor, /u/shandromand, from everyone who reads this. He is the one who convinced me to continue.**


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